Driven by social media, the last few years have presented us many challenges — the 2014 ice bucket challenge that raised $115 million for ALS research, the 2012 cinnamon eating challenge that injured and even killed participants, and weekly step challenges where friends compete to see who can walk the most steps as measured by a Fitbit or other wearable device.

Here’s a new one with the dubious name “Soil Your Undies Challenge.”

It’s a different kind of garden soil test, completely unscientific, but science is definitely going to happen.

The basic premise is to buy a new pair of white cotton men’s underwear and bury it a few inches down in your garden. Either leave the waistband exposed or mark the location so you can find it later. After six to eight weeks, dig up the pair of underwear.

If your soil is healthy, at the end of the burial period, you’ll be digging up an elastic waistband with a few soiled shreds of cotton clinging to it. The healthier your soil, the more decomposed the condition of the underwear.

Just what happens to the underwear while it is underground? If you have healthy soil containing sufficient organic matter, you also have organisms like earthworms, fungi, bacteria and other microbes that like to eat organic matter. They apparently also like to eat cotton underwear.

If you dig up the underwear and find that with a good washing it is still wearable, you’ve failed the challenge and your soil needs serious help.

Here are some things you can do to improve the health of your soil:

Minimize disturbance. Stop tilling. Instead of pulling up dead plants, cut them off at the soil line and allow roots to decompose in place.

Add compost.

Keep soil covered at all times. Organic mulches like leaves, pine needles, wood chips, straw and shredded newspaper slowly decompose and improve soil structure and fertility as well as reduce the need for supplemental water and fertilizer, reduce runoff, increase drought tolerance and reduce pest and disease problems.

Keep living roots in the soil at all times. There is a symbiotic relationship between plant roots and soil microbes as they provide food for each other.

Maximize plant diversity. The more kinds of roots in the soil, the better the diversity of soil microbes.

Stop using chemical fertilizers. The salts in them kill soil life.

Do not use soil-applied fungicides or other pesticides. Anything with the suffix “cide” means something is going to die and the last thing you want to do is kill soil life.

Do not apply phosphorus to your soil unless a soil test says it is necessary. Soils with excess phosphorus discourage growth of soil fungi. Phosphorus is the “P” on a bag of fertilizer, and is always the middle number. For example a bag of 10-5-10, has 5% by weight of phosphorus.

If you take the “Soil Your Undies” challenge, please email me your results, good or bad. Photos are welcome.

Lawanda Jungwirth is a UW-Extension Master Gardener. Email her at ljungwirth@charter.net